Can you be a christian and a liberal?

Question

I'm not a liberal whatsoever but I've seen many Christians support many liberal ideas and it's confusing to me

Answer 1

It depends on the issue at hand.





2 Corinthians 3:17

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.



Only from a Christian perspective, liberty is having dominion over our flesh and its desires, rather than being a slave to them. True freedom is found in our fulfilling our highest, God-given destiny rather than satisfying our temporal feelings and self gratification.



All Christians sin against God's perfect morality as characterized in the Bible. Sincere Christians acknowledge our sins and pursue repentance. Those who are less sincere in their faith's confession will try to justify their sin so they can continue to wallow in it.



Nevertheless, there are also areas where liberal/progressive philosophy parallels Christian philosophy (probably due to modern ethics having a foundation in the Judeo-Christian philosophy of our forefathers).

Answer 2

Yes, easily. Most christians understand why jesus would've easily fallen under that umbrella term as well. Had he actually existed.



There's a disturbing lack of morality on the side of conservatives. And if you think i'm bullshitting, take a good hard look at the orange pile of **** you people made president.

Answer 3

Those are Christians in name only. If a Christian genuinely believes the Gospel, she cannot simultaneously agree with liberalism's anti-Christian tenets. One cannot serve two masters.

Answer 4

The liberals are deceiving themselves if they think they are Christians because they are all going to burn in Hell. Everyone knows that.

Answer 5

Yes. Just to give you three big names who are Christian and liberal

(i)Martin Luther King Jr.

(ii)Archbishop Desmond Tutu

(iii)Dietrich Bonhoeffer.



Jesus himself was considered a liberal in his day. There is a reason he had clashes with the Teachers of the Law. At the time the Pharisees(sages) were split into two schools of thought. (i)The School of Hillel. (ii) The School of Shammai. The School of Hillel was liberal in their interpretation of the Law. The School of Shammai were conservative in their interpretation of the Law.



When Jesus had his clashes with the teachers of the Law, at the time the Synagogues and Sanhedrin were dominated by the School of Shammai, so he was clashing with the conservatives of his day. And his teaching(love your nieghbor) was closely aligned to Rabbi Hillel and the liberal school of thought in Jewish society.



Furthermore the Temple elites were dominated by the sect of first century Judaism called the Sadducees. They were the aristocrats of their day and what distinguished them from the Pharisees was that they were biblical literalists. Jesus also clashed with them and it was his clash with the High Priest in the temple that dominates the Gospel narratives.



So the people who hated Jesus were the biblical literalists, fundamentalists and conservatives of his day. How ironic that in our day and age many religious conservatives and bible thumping fundamentalists think they are being consistent with Jesus's message.

Answer 6

Yes

Answer 7

Of course you can. Liberals are often very keen on human rights issues, as Jesus was.

Answer 8

I don't think religion and politics mix well to begin with, it'll make either party look like contradicting hypocrites.

Answer 9

Jesus was a political refugee who grew up to be a homeless man offering free food and healthcare while attacking the political and religious establishment for their hypocrisy and corruption. He also preached love and compassion across ethnic boundaries.



Seems like someone liberals could easily admire.

Answer 10

Of course. In fact, for people outside of the USA, this is a very confusing question.

Answer 11

Of course you can. Methodists are very liberal, being open to gays, gay marriage, very socail justice stuff.